NASA's Mars rovers are talking to Earth and Earth is talking to the rovers again after a two-week silence. About every 26 months, when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun, the Sun blocks communication. Read More

Like storm chasers on Earth, a NASA spacecraft spends time each day pursuing intense weather on Mars. Speeding along in orbit, it takes images of dust storms. Often, the storms are spiral like giant tornadoes on Earth. Read More

If the car-size Mars Science Laboratory rover overheats or if it stalls because it's cold, you can't call a tow truck on Mars! To keep the rover running, engineers just installed a pump system similar to a car's radiator. Read More

When you're training for a tough task, role-playing games can prepare you for the real thing. Scientists play "games" too. Sixty Mars scientists from around the world just finished four exercises to practice directing the Mars Science Laboratory rover's activities after it lands. Read More

On Mars, the stuff we know as "dry ice," or frozen carbon dioxide, is a powerful agent for change. In winter, it forms a polar ice cap. In spring, it becomes an expanding gas that carves channels in the surface and sends loose debris into landslides. Read More

Electing where to send a rover on the diverse landscape of Mars is no easy task. With a lot at stake, two sides of the Mars team--scientists and engineers--have been lobbying for the best candidate landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory rover. Read More

Each day, Opportunity picks a route through two kinds of Martian terrain -- one hard and smooth, the other soft and sandy. Paving the way are flat-lying rocks formed long ago with help from liquid water. Read More

On Earth, hikers are set on "bagging peaks," making it all the way to the summits of mountains. On Mars, Opportunity has been bagging craters! They have nicknames like "Eagle," "Endurance," and "Victoria." Read More

Just as jewelry makers take care to set a gem in a ring, a tireless team has been working late hours to tuck the Mars Science Laboratory rover inside its intricate, protective aeroshell and mount it for the first time on a giant gold "ring" (the cruise structure). Read More

Imagine taking a very long 10-month journey with someone you've just recently met! The assembly team successfully introduced the Mars Science Laboratory rover to one of its space travel partners. Read More

Humans can't go to Mars (yet), but at least for now, we can send extensions of ourselves. Mars Science Laboratory's rover will be the hardiest geologist the red planet's seen yet, going farther and into rougher terrain than ever before. Read More

Opal is the gemstone for those born in the month of October, but Mars scientists may claim it as the treasure of 2008. Inside the largest canyon in the whole solar system, opal minerals stretch in a pinkish cream swath, just to the right of a crater filled with dunes. Read More

When you have just one chance to land Mars' biggest rover, you have to practice - a lot. So, how do you copy a high-speed descent on Mars? Strap special sensors to an F/A-18 jet at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Read More

Hot off a special delivery truck from Lockheed Martin in Denver comes the aeroshell for the Mars Science Laboratory rover. Like two pieces of a giant clam, the aeroshell's backshell and the heatshield come together to protect the rover and the propulsion stage that safely delivers it to the surface of Mars. Read More

When it descends through the Martian sky, the Mars Science Laboratory rover will "hang six," riding the Martian wind. The descent stage will lower the rover to the ground using a "Bridle Umbilical Device." Read More

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is on the road again. In typical shutterbug fashion, the rover sent a postcard of its travels. This time, the rover added a new touch -- raising its robotic arm in a final salute to "Victoria Crater." Read More

The Mars tribe has spoken. After searching far and wide for a landing site that can tell them if Mars was ever livable for microscopic life, the tribe of Mars experts has eliminated dozens of contenders. Only seven survive (labeled in white). Read More

Like talk show hosts, NASA's Mars rovers broadcast their findings at television frequencies. They record their observations and send them to the Mars Odyssey orbiter once or twice a day. Odyssey then broadcasts the program -- spectacular images and all -- back to Earth. Read More

Like talk show hosts, NASA's Mars rovers broadcast their findings at television frequencies. They record their observations and send them to the Mars Odyssey orbiter once or twice a day. Odyssey then broadcasts the program -- spectacular images and all -- back to Earth. Read More

Like space shuttle pilots, Mars navigators need to know what the atmosphere will be like during landing. When Phoenix arrived, it barely missed a dust storm. Now scientists are evaluating what conditions may be like when the Mars Science Laboratory rover arrives in two years. That's one Mars year, or one change of seasons. Read More

Like a racecar in need of high-performance tires, the next rover to explore Mars needs a rugged set of wheels. Like the racing tires, the off-road wheels must perform flawlessly. Together with a rugged suspension system, they must be lightweight, strong, and agile enough to handle extreme terrain. takes a lot of drilling to prepare to use a drill 100 million miles away, beyond the reach of humans. The Mars Science Laboratory rover is wasting no time doing just that. With an industrial-strength drill, the rover will pulverize the inside of hard, volcanic rocks on Mars and study the powder. Read More

If you've ever gotten stuck while driving on a sandy beach or road, you can imagine Opportunity's recent experience on Mars. At times, the rover's wheels have done more slipping than advancing. Like a hardy dune buggy, the rover keeps driving. Read More

It takes a lot of drilling to prepare to use a drill 100 million miles away, beyond the reach of humans. The Mars Science Laboratory rover is wasting no time doing just that. With an industrial-strength drill, the rover will pulverize the inside of hard, volcanic rocks on Mars and study the powder. Read More

Imagine having only enough energy to run a microwave oven for seven minutes each day. Think of it as your energy diet -- it's all you have to survive. Basically, that's what NASA's Mars rover, Spirit, experienced in June 2008. Read More

Let's say you live in Miami. If Earth's weather were as predictable as Mars' weather, you could expect a hurricane similar in magnitude to hit Miami year after year, within about two weeks of the same date. Read More

Just as migrating birds herald the changing seasons on Earth, sand dunes show seasonal change on the fourth rock from the Sun. From a distance, crescent-shaped dunes near the north pole of Mars can even resemble birds in flight. Read More

Mars rovers appear to be shrinking with age! The biggest, baddest, newest rover being built is the Mars Science Laboratory rover (right). It's the size of a small sport-utility vehicle. Still exploring Mars four years after landing are the dune-buggy-sized rovers Spirit and Opportunity (left). The first-generation rover, Sojourner, is the size of a microwave oven. Read More

The next set of "eyes" to journey to Mars are already busy observing people and objects on Earth. Keen vision will be essential to keeping the Mars Science Laboratory rover, a vehicle the size of a small SUV, out of trouble amid the red planet's cliffs, sand, and boulders. Read More

If Mars had an on-line Web site for ads, one of them might say something like this: "Wanted: Gentle space-age dust removal system to clean solar cells without leaving grit behind. Please direct inquiries to NASA." Read More

Though they're not attached to creatures of the deep, fins made of rock poke up above the surface and suggest past water on Mars. NASA's Opportunity rover took images of a thin fin on the edge of a rock in "Victoria Crater." The fin was rich in hematite, a mineral that often forms in the presence of water. Read More

If you smacked a frozen chocolate bar on a table, it would break into bite-size pieces resembling the terrain in this Martian crater. To a planetary scientist, this pattern is a tantalizing clue that the ground once contained water ice. When the frozen terrain cracked, in some places the ice melted into flows chock full of sediment. Perhaps the ground is still filled with layers of near-surface ice. Read More

Instead of taking spots out, NASA's Mars rovers put spots in! While driving backward down the north rim of "Home Plate," Spirit used its robotic arm to clear away grit from flat rocks under its wheels. Upon taking a second look, Spirit discovered not only spots but stripes. Read More

Nowadays it's not unusual to find a woman at the helm -- leading a corporation, commanding a space shuttle, or even operating a rover on Mars, but it's rare to have a supermajority of women in some technical fields. Read More

Engineers worked late on March 7th, "keeping time" with an aggressive schedule for building the Mars Science Laboratory rover. Getting into a new rhythm of hard work to come, the mission team was upbeat as they kicked off a mission phase called ATLO (Assembly, Testing, and Launch Operations). Read More